Heretofore, in a tape player, the loading-eject mechanism effecting loading-eject of a cassette and the mode switching mechanism moving a head plate according to the mode such as stop, play, fast-forward, etc. are driven by different members.
Further, for the mode switching mechanism, a mechanism is often used, by which different modes can be switched by a simple operation to push down a switch without using any manual operation force by performing holding and switching of the different modes by utilizing the attractive force of an electromagnetic plunger and the driving force of a motor.
Since a tape player automated as described above has a construction necessarily more complicated than that operated manually, it is desired to reduce the number of parts and in particular the numbers of plungers, for which the construction is more complicated and the number of fabrication steps is greater than the other parts.
Further a mechanism, in which a head plate is attracted and held by an electromagnetic plunger, has another problem that the retreat of the head plate at the eject is accompanied by production of retreat chock sound due to a return spring.
In addition, in a prior art mode switching mechanism, the head plate is moved, as the mode is changed such that play.fwdarw.stop.fwdarw.fast-forward (FF) for the mode switching from the play mode to the FF mode and FF .fwdarw.stop.fwdarw.play for the mode switching from the FF mode to the play mode. That is, the switching operation is not directly performed, but it is performed necessarily through the stop position.
Furthermore, as a cassette loading-eject mechanism in a prior art tape player, there is known a loading-eject mechanism using a torsion type inverted spring, as indicated in FIG. 22.
That is, in the figure, reference numeral 50 is a loading plate; 51 is a power gear for moving the loading plate; 52 is a return spring; 53 is a loading link; 54 is a torsion spring disposed on the loading link; 55 is a pack stopper; 56 is a pack guide for the cassette; 53a is an engaging hole formed in the loading link; 50a is a pin inserted therein and secured to the loading plate 50; 53b is a protrusion supporting the winding portion of the spring 54 stated above and disposed on the loading link 53; 53c is an engaging piece on the loading link side, which is engaged with a spring portion of the torsion spring 54; and 55a is an engaging pin disposed on the pack stopper The engaging pin 55a is inserted in an opening 53d formed in the loading link 53 and thrust to a peripheral side portion 53e of the opening 53d by the other spring portion of the torsion spring 54. In the operation of loading the cassette, when the loading plate 50 is moved in the direction indicated by an arrow G (FIG. 22 shows the state where the movement is terminated), the loading link 53 is rotated clockwise (in FIG. 22) together therewith and the pack stopper 55 is moved in the direction indicated by an arrow H by the torsion spring 54 stated above. In this way, a cassette (not shown in the figure) inserted in the pack guide 56 is pulled-in to the loading position in the inner most part thereof.
In the loading-eject mechanism described above, the movement of the pack stopper 55 is limited by a guide arm or an end portion of a chassis and errors in the mechanism are absorbed by over-push of the torsion spring 54 due to the fact that the loading link 53 is excessively moved, in order to assure the position of the moving cassette. However, in the case where the cassette is caught during the loading, the pack stopper is stopped and the loading link is moved against the torsion spring 54. After the engaging pin 55a has touched the peripheral side portion 54f of the opening 53d, the loading link 53 is stopped forcedly, which gives rise an inconvenience in the mechanism that the motor (not shown in the figure) driving the power gear 50 is stopped also forcedly.
Further, since the mounting position of the torsion spring 54 is at the engaging position between the loading link 53 and the pack stopper 55 (on the upper surface of the pack guide 56), it is different to construct the whole mechanism in a thin form.
Further, in the prior art tape player having the mode switching and loading-eject mechanism described above, operational position detecting means does not detect the play position and the FF position of the player, but detects the stop position and the eject position by means of different members. That is, for the stop position the retreated position of the head plate is detected by a switch and for the eject position the moving position of the eject plate is detected by another switch.
However, by the construction described above, concerning the play position and the FF position, it is not possible to detect whether the mode is really in one of these positions or not.
In addition, in the case where the operational position stated above is detected by means of a switch, since the switch can be located only near a respective operational member, this gives rise a drawback that not only a large space is required therefor but also wiring is complicated.